Over the past few days various newspapers have reported the imminent introduction in Parliament, during the upcoming Monsoon session, of a Right to Privacy Bill. Since the text of this bill has not yet been made accessible to the public, this post attempts to grope its way – through guesswork – towards a picture of what the Bill might look like from a combined reading of all the newspaper accounts. I am relying entirely on the following 3 newspaper accounts in the Times of India, the Hindu and the Deccan Chronicle.

A Constitutional/Fundamental Right?

The Times of India piece which broke the story seems to have misunderstood/misquoted Law Minister Veerappa Moily. The article is titled “Right to privacy may become fundamental right” which connotes a constitutional amendment. However this is inconsistent with the later portions of the same article as well as subsequent newspaper accounts in DC and the Hindu. So its safe to assume that this will not be a fundamental right to privacy, but a statutory right to privacy – like what the Right to Information Act grants us.